Sam and I left the hotel after breakfast this morning, with Abdul driving the car. We have decided to see a couple more sites in the Minya area then press on to Asyut today, so we left our bags in the hotel to collect later.

Our first stop was Tihna el-Gebel to the North of Minya, a place we visited only briefly last time we were here. It’s a large, mostly Graeco-Roman town site, known as Akoris, with a rock-temple of Hathor, built on a hill in a very dramatic situation. This time we wanted to try to visit the Old Kingdom tombs known as the ‘Fraser Tombs’, which are nearby. There is always a great fuss with the police who will insist that it is TUNA el-Gebel we want to go to, which is the better known site of Ashmunein on the other side of the river. Nobody pronounces TIHNA el-Gebel the same way twice so it’s difficult to get across where we want to go as they’ve never heard of it. In the end the police were sensible and let Abdul lead the way. We met the gafir and he led us up the hill through the very extensive mudbrick town site and we had another look at the rock-cut temples. One of them is supposed to date to Rameses II & Merenptah, but the only poorly-preserved reliefs in the temple court are from much later. The temples are in a very sorry state and the whole site is a confused jumble, with deep pits everywhere. The site dates from the Old Kingdom but has been used and reused right through to Christian times.

We wandered around the back of the temples, scrambling over the rocks with the gafir shaking his head and saying ‘no, no’. In the end he just let us go – must have realised by now that we are quite mad. On the other side of the hill past dozens of sanded up late period tombs in the necropolis, we found an area where a Japanese team have been excavating for the past three seasons. They have uncovered Late Period granaries, a textile workshop, leatherworking shop and a copper/bronze refinery and a great deal of pottery and other artefacts. There is so much here at this site and there are wonderful views from the top of the hill over yellow and green agricultural fields to the Nile.

We asked about the Old Kingdom ‘Fraser’ tombs but the gafir said they were a few kilometres further up the wadi and he didn’t have a key. Standing on top of the hill we could see hundreds of tombs cut into the slopes all around, but I think these are mostly Late Period or Roman. There are some very odd bits and pieces, such as a lovely heart-shaped column base on the temple platform – I’ve never seen one like it before. There is quite a lot of inscribed stone but nothing really complete enough to read properly, and I didn’t recognise the cartouches, which probably means they’re Late or Graeco-Roman. After a while we decided we had tried the patience of the gafir enough for one day, so it was time to leave.

Next stop the tiny pyramid of Zawiyet el-Maiyitin, Zawiyet el-Amwat, or Zawiyet el-Sultan as it is called locally. This is just across the river from Minya. The pyramid only has its lower courses remaining and is one of the seven Old Kingdom mini-pyramids in the Nile Valley, known as the Sinki Pyramids and sometimes ascribed to King Huni. However, we wanted to walk up to the Dynasty XVIII tomb of Nefersekheru, up on the gebel. There are many New Kingdom tombs but this is the only one open, so we puffed and panted our way up and went inside. I left with little recollection of what the tomb looked like – which just proves I need photographs (not allowed) to jog my memory and should have taken notes. We also saw what we think is the Old Kingdom tomb complex of Khunes, which has recently been re-excavated and still has reliefs in the outer parts.

We find more and more, and especially in Middle Egypt that wherever there is a modern cemetery there is almost certain to be an ancient site nearby. This theory has been very helpful when we are searching for places. The Muslim cemetery at Zawyet is one of the biggest in Egypt and dates back a long time. Its little mud domes stretch for miles along the banks of the Nile. We walked back down towards the pyramid and looked at the site of a New Kingdom Temple. There are few remains except in the quay area, but you can just make out the ground-plan of the temple to the north and we saw a nice block of stone with a Seti I cartouche.

We left Zawyet and drove back to the hotel to collect our bags and then on to Asyut, arriving around 3.30pm. The only hotel which took tourists and had rooms free was the Hotel Badr Touristic, quite expensive for an Egyptian-run hotel at $29 per night and not really tourist standard but not too bad. A strange place, it looked more like a nightclub than a hotel, with lots of mirrors everywhere on the red plush walls and large glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. We were allowed out to play on our own here and went out to eat later in a local restaurant serving the usual meat, rice and vegetables, followed by a coffee shop. I can’t decide if I like Asyut or not, it’s not as pretty as Minya and much bigger, being one of the main university towns.

We have now been in Egypt almost a week and the time seems to be flying by on the one hand, while on the other it feels like we have been here forever. Sam & I had decided to go to Amarna today on the off chance that we may be able to take pictures in the Southern tombs. Last time we were there we took lots of photographs in the Northern tombs on the first day, but when we returned on the second day we were told ‘no photos’. That turned out to be the first day of the photo ban which began in 2003 but we had thought at the time that the inspector, Nasser was just being awkward. When we met Abdul at breakfast today he happened to let slip that he had taken some tourists from Luxor to Amarna a couple of months ago and that there was a new road all the way to the Royal Tomb. Of course we didn’t believe him as he loves to wind us up. The royal tomb has for years been fairly inaccessible, entailing a long hike up the boulder-strewn wadi. More recently the tomb has been off-limits altogether. When we realised he was telling the truth we were so excited. Neither Sam nor I thought we would ever be fit enough to do the 15km hike up the wadi and back in the desert heat and we were desperate to see Akhenaten’s tomb.

The journey to Amarna through Mallawi was much better than last time, when we had been surrounded by armoured vehicles all the way there. Today was much more laid back with only one escort truck (with four sleeping policemen in the back). After crossing by the car ferry over the wide stretch of Nile from el-Till, we were met by Nasser who remembered us from last time.

Yes, there really is a new road system at Akhetaten which has cost the Egyptian government EL9 million to build. Why?? Tourists are not exactly encouraged to visit this part of Egypt. The drive up the steep-sided Royal Wadi felt very much like the road up to the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, a winding stretch of unmarked black tarmac between the sheer rock-faces and side-valleys of the Amarna cliffs. While I imagine it has totally destroyed the atmosphere there I was still very grateful. The Royal tomb is currently being restored by a team of Egyptians who were working in the two-pillared burial chamber when we got there.

There are more surviving reliefs than I had expected, though many people would probably think there was little to see. The ‘Princesses Chambers’ were especially interesting and very well lit and cleaned, with scenes of the King and Queen mourning and Meketaten’s death-bed scene beautifully clear and still with a little colour showing. I had only seen these scenes as sketches in books. Even our six accompanying policemen were very interested as they had never been here before. We could have taken brilliant photographs but decided not to ask, which I later regretted. We walked along the curving corridor in another suite of chambers thought to have been possibly built as a secondary tomb for Nefertiti, when the generator failed and we were plunged into darkness. Nobody had a torch and the floor was very uneven, but we managed to get out as far as the main stairs by light from the flames of cigarette lighters. I wondered briefly if this was done for effect.

Our next port of call was to be el-Sheikh Said and we had hoped we could drive around the northern end of the Amarna cliffs, as it is just a few kilometres away, but Inspector Nasser told us that the track wasn’t good enough to drive. It was a hard decision to leave Amarna without seeing the Southern tombs again, but time was getting on if we wanted to see other sites today. Back across the el-Till ferry, up the road through Mallawi to Roda and across the river by ferry again to el-Sheikh Said. This turned out to be a disaster.

Nasser had said there was a good road on that side, but it quickly turned into a very bumpy dirt track after a couple of kilometres and Sam & I had to get out of the car and walk the rest of the way. When we got there the gafir turned up and pointed to where the tombs were – half way up the gebel and we realised it would take another hour of climbing to reach them. Risking the wrath of both Abdul and the police escort, we smiled sweetly and told them that we had decided not to climb up to the tombs after all.

These are among the earliest examples of rock-cut tombs, a development from mastabas in this region and date back to Dynasty V and VI. They were built for the officials of Ashmunein across the river, but there is no contemporary evidence of this cemetery found at the capital, Ashmunein. They are considered to be archaeologically very important. It seemed like a bit of a cop-out not to go up and see them, but it would probably be dark before we got back, so we had to make do with long-lens shots of the tombs. We had also planned to go to el-Sheikh ‘Ibada which is nearby, just to see if there is anything left of the Roman town of Antinopolis, built by the Emperor Hadrian in memory of his friend Antinous who drowned in the Nile. However, the road to that site was just as bad as the one we had just driven so we reluctantly decided not to try it.

We got back to Minya at 6.00pm and later went to eat at KFC again. It’s very cold tonight so we went back to the hotel for coffee and were in bed by midnight.

Up at 6.00am to pack, we had an early breakfast and left the Hotel Victoria by 8.00am. It’s odd to think we won’t becoming back to Cairo before we fly home. Probably just as well we’re leaving because there is rain forecast and it’s pretty dark and gloomy this morning. Everyone is hurrying about to avoid being caught in the imminent downpour. It took over an hour to get across the city through the rush-hour traffic and onto Sharia al-Ahram in Giza. Abdul was driving (even Sam refuses to drive in Cairo!) and he had decided to take the desert highway up to Minya as it is the quickest route. It was not nearly as boring as I had expected. We drove past the Giza Pyramids – this was our first real sight of them this trip, and out onto the Desert road past the turnoff to Bahariya and the Faiyum.

We actually skirted the Faiyum and could see its green swathes of palm trees and watery fields not far away. We also went past Hawara and Meidum Pyramids, seen in the distance from the highway. I Managed to get a fuzzy picture of Meidum as we flew past at 120km an hour. It seems to be much easier travelling in a private car than it is in a taxi and we were waved through all the checkpoints and had no police with us on the journey.

By 1.00pm we had arrived in Minya and began to look for a hotel. The cheaper ones were all full, so we ended up at the Mercure Nefertiti and Aton, which is quite expensive, even though Abdul negotiated Egyptian discount rate for us. Bless him, he does come in useful! Still, $35 per night is quite expensive for me in Egypt, though as I get older I am appreciating decent hotels (and hot showers) much more, no longer so happy to ‘rough it’. We had a Nile view room, with a balcony and it felt like pure luxury. I even had some laundry done. Bliss!

In Minya all tourists have to be accompanied everywhere by the police. I can never work out why this is because there is never any feeling of a threat here and it’s such a beautiful town. The Corniche has gardens and parks all the way along and it is full of old colonial-style buildings. And so clean after Cairo. Anyway, we wanted to go out to eat so we had to arrange with the police for a security man to come with us (plain clothed but his gun bulged from his belt for all to see). There aren’t many places to eat in Minya, and most of the local ones are understandably reluctant to serve tourists who have a police escort. We ended up at a KFC, which is just down the road from the hotel – not a brilliant meal and we had to complain about the coleslaw which was definitely off. Afterwards we persuaded our guard that he would like to spend the rest of the evening in a coffee shop, to which he readily agreed. The alternative for him would have been to go back and sit on a chair outside the hotel all night. We found a newly-opened coffee shop where a few locals were playing dominoes and back-gammon and had several cups of really good ahwa while Abdul and Mohammed our guard chatted and smoked shisha and Sam & I played Egyptian Trivia. The inevitably loud TV was playing Arabic pop music on a Sky channel. By about midnight we had got very cold, even in my fleece and scarf I was shivering and my toes were beginning to turn blue to match my sandals, so we made our way back to the hotel.

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